One of South Beach's deco jewels, the Century Hotel, just got a
half-million-dollar
retrofit for the future. "Miami is the portal to South America for technology
companies," says David Smith, an executive with the Century's parent company.
"It's only natural that we have the capabilities
to allow guests to work and play hard."

Each of the hotel's 31 rooms has been upgraded with high-speed data
transmission
lines (T1 equivalent or better via an Ethernet network) and on-demand digital
movie systems that let guests pause, rewind, and fast-forward at their
whim. Soon, customized content, from city guides to ecommerce, will stream
through the hotel's dataports and television sets via a satellite system.

The Century has beauty to go with its brains. The hotel's stylish neon-bathed
exterior, designed in 1939 by deco master Henry Hohauser,
has been meticulously preserved. Inside, the marble bathrooms, linen-covered
walls, and hardwood floors bring old-world tropical elegance into the new
millennium. And the in-house Italian restaurant, Joia, is known for its
A-list regulars (Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Stephen Baldwin). But it's not
just for the famous: Fulfilling Smith's expectations, plenty of plugged-in
patrons sup luxuriously while they're hunched over their laptops.